Leadership

Dear Carla,

I've always been interested in leadership. The qualities of leaders, the character needed, the way leaders' minds work -- that's all very interesting to me.

Over at And Again, a soccer coaching forum, they are discussing leadership qualities. Among the more interesting posts is:

We also have our own leadership philosophy that we explain to them. "You take care of everyone with your actions, not just yourself." and "The first person that you lead is yourself." Simple and straightforward, it makes it very obvious to everyone who is really a leader, and who is after the status of being a leader.

They are also talking about different leadership qualities and styles of girls and boys. I could go on forever about that, and will someday. Until then, here's some good info:

For girls, I'm looking first and foremost for the dominant personality. Girls have a pecking order, although it's a little different than how guys do it. Then I start having conversations with her about what it means to lead. Probably the biggest thing with girls is that they're constantly picking on the negative and never reinforcing the positive. If you can convince this individual (sometimes there are more than one) to be more positive than negative, the girls will begin to respond to her. Then you have to make sure she's on your side about things like paying attention in practice and working hard on drills and doing your homework, etc, but that usually follows with this particular kind of personality. Then, when you have a good example, when someone else asks to be captain, you ask them whether they're willing to do what it takes to be captain: Work the hardest, pay attention, keep others in line, take responsibility, encourage others, etc.

Most times, the response I get is "oh." lol.

What are your thoughts on leadership? Do you need captains? What authority do you give them? Are they effective?

When I think of more, I'll write.

Thanks
You know who